MINNEAPOLIS -- The murder case against former officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd went to the jury Monday in a city on edge against another round of protests like those sparked last year over a video of Chauvin with his knee on Floyd's neck.
The jury of six white people and six people who are Black or multiracial began deliberating after nearly a full day of closing arguments in which prosecutors argued that Chauvin squeezed the life out of Floyd last May.
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The defense contended that the now-fired white officer acted reasonably and that Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died of a heart condition and illegal drug use.
After closing arguments were finished, Judge Peter Cahill rejected a defense request for a mistrial based in part on comments from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who said "we've got to get more confrontational" if Chauvin isn't convicted of murder.
The judge told Chauvin's attorney: "Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned." He called her comments "abhorrent" and "disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch."
Chauvin, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, all of which require the jury to conclude that his actions were a "substantial causal factor" in Floyd's death and that his use of force was unreasonable.
The most serious charge carries up to 40 years in prison.
"Use your common sense. Believe your eyes. What you saw, you saw," prosecutor Steve Schleicher said in closing arguments, referring to the bystander video of Floyd pinned to the pavement with Chauvin's knee on or close to his neck for up to 9½ minutes as onlookers yelled at the officer to get off.
Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson countered by arguing that Chauvin did what any reasonable police officer would have done after finding himself in a "dynamic" and "fluid" situation involving a large man struggling with three officers.
Nelson repeatedly reframed the scene by suggesting that there were 17 minutes before the 9½ minutes Chauvin was on top of Floyd that a "reasonable police officer" would find relevant. Nelson had begun his closing arguments by explaining legal concepts through analogies involving space aliens and chocolate chip cookies. Later, he showed video in an attempt to establish that police needed force to control a noncompliant suspect.
As Nelson began speaking, the now-fired Chauvin removed his mask in front of the jury for one of the very few times during the trial.
Nelson reminded jurors that they cannot convict Chauvin unless they are certain of his guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt."
"Essentially, what the state has to convince you is that ... the evidence in this case completely eliminate any reasonable doubt or, in other words, leaving only unreasonable doubt," Nelson said.
When Nelson meets with clients, he offers another analogy, he told the jurors: A "criminal case is kind of like baking chocolate chip cookies. You have to have the necessary ingredients. You've got to have flour and sugar and butter and chocolate chips, whatever else goes into those chocolate chip cookies," he said. "If you have all of the ingredients, you can make chocolate chip cookies."
"But if you're missing any one single ingredient, you can't make chocolate chip cookies," he added. "Criminal law works the same way... . The state has the burden of proving each and every element beyond a reasonable doubt."
"If they are missing any one single element, any one single element, it is a not-guilty verdict," he said.
Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell had the final word Monday, offering the state's rebuttal argument. The prosecutor, who is Black, said the questions about the use of force and cause of death are "so simple that a child can understand it."
"In fact, a child did understand it, when the 9-year-old girl said, 'Get off of him,'" Blackwell said, referring to a young witness who objected to what she saw. "That's how simple it was. 'Get off of him.' Common sense."
Under the law, police have certain latitude to use force, and their actions are supposed to be judged according to what a "reasonable officer" in the same situation would have done.
Nelson noted that officers who first went to the corner store where Floyd allegedly passed a counterfeit $20 bill were struggling with Floyd when Chauvin arrived as backup. The defense attorney also pointed out that the first two officers on the scene were rookies and that police had been told that Floyd might be on drugs.
"A reasonable police officer understands the intensity of the struggle," Nelson said, noting that Chauvin's body camera and badge were knocked off his chest.
Nelson also showed the jury pictures of pills found in Floyd's SUV and pill remnants discovered in the squad car. Fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in Floyd's system.
The defense attorney said the failure of the prosecution to acknowledge that medical problems or drugs played a role "defies medical science and it defies common sense and reason."
'COMMON SENSE OR NONSENSE?'
During the prosecution's argument, Schleicher replayed portions of the bystander video and other footage as he dismissed certain defense theories about Floyd's death as "nonsense." He said Chauvin killed Floyd by constricting his breathing.
Schleicher rejected the drug overdose argument, as well as the contention that police were distracted by hostile onlookers, that Floyd had "superhuman" strength from a state of agitation known as excited delirium, and that he suffered possible carbon monoxide poisoning from auto exhaust.
"There was no superhuman strength that day. There's no superhuman strength, because there's no such thing as a superhuman," he said. "Those exist in comic books... . Just a human, just a man lying on the pavement, being pressed upon, desperately crying out -- a grown man crying out for his mother, a human being."
The prosecutor referred to the idea that it was heart disease that killed Floyd as an "amazing coincidence."
"Is that common sense or is that nonsense?" Schleicher asked the jury.
Blackwell, his fellow prosecutor, likewise rejected the defense theory that Floyd died because of an enlarged heart: "The truth of the matter is that the reason George Floyd is dead is because Mr. Chauvin's heart was too small."
Earlier, Schleicher described how Chauvin ignored Floyd's cries and continued to kneel on him well after he stopped breathing and had no pulse. Chauvin was "on top of him for 9 minutes and 29 seconds and he had to know," Schleicher said. "He had to know."
He said Chauvin heard Floyd, "but he just didn't listen."
The prosecutor said Floyd was "not a threat to anyone" and was not trying to escape when he struggled with officers but instead was terrified of being put into the tiny backseat of the squad car.
He said a reasonable officer with Chauvin's training and experience -- he was a 19-year Minneapolis police veteran -- should have sized up the situation accurately.
Chauvin, wearing a light gray suit with a blue shirt and blue tie, showed little expression as he watched himself and the other officers pinning Floyd to the ground on bodycam video played by his attorney. He cocked his head to the side and occasionally leaned forward to write on a notepad.
An unidentified woman occupied the single seat set aside in the pandemic-spaced courtroom for a Chauvin supporter.
Floyd's brother Philonise represented the family in court, as he often has during the trial.
Schleicher also noted that Chauvin was required to use his training to provide medical care to Floyd but ignored bystanders, rebuffed help from an off-duty paramedic and rejected a suggestion from another officer to roll Floyd onto his side.
"He could have listened to the bystanders. He could have listened to fellow officers. He could have listened to his own training," Schleicher said. "He knew better. He just didn't do better."
On Thursday, Cahill told jurors to "plan for long, hope for short" in preparation for deliberations.
"Basically, it's up to the jury how long you deliberate, how long you need to come to a unanimous decision on any count," he said. "And so because that's entirely up to you -- whether it's an hour or a week -- it's entirely within your province."
The jury will be sequestered in a hotel during deliberations. It so far has not been; jurors have been allowed to go home as long as they promise to avoid any news coverage about the case.
READY FOR VIOLENCE
With the case drawing to a close, some stores were boarded up in Minneapolis. The courthouse was ringed with concrete barriers and razor wire, and National Guard troops were on patrol. Floyd's death set off protests last spring in the city and across the U.S. that sometimes turned violent.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for calm on Monday as the jury began deliberations. He declared a "peacetime emergency" to allow the police from neighboring states to be called in if necessary, joining more than 3,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen who have been deployed to assist local law enforcement.
"Local and state resources have been fully deployed, but they are inadequate to address the threat," Walz said in an executive order.
Schools will move to remote learning later this week, and businesses have been boarded up because of the potential for unrest following a verdict.
The fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, in a suburb called Brooklyn Center has cast a shadow over the proceedings.
About 300 protesters marched in the streets outside the courthouse shortly after the jury got the case, lining up behind a banner reading, "Justice 4 George Floyd & all stolen lives. The world is watching."
Information for this article was contributed by Amy Forliti, Stephen Groves, Tammy Webber, Angie Wang, Mohamed Ibrahim and Aaron Morris of The Associated Press; by Abigail Hauslohner, Lateshia Beachum and Keith McMillan of The Washington Post; and by Shaila Dewan, Tim Arango, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and John Eligon of The New York Times.
